Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Tori Amos’ Category

Neil Gaiman–M is for Magic & Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

Posted in Jasper Fforde, Neil Gaiman, The Fratellis, Tori Amos on August 31, 2007| Leave a Comment »

misfor.jpgfragile.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE FRATELLIS-Costello Music (2007).

costello.jpgI was watching the Brit Awards recently and The Fratellis won for Breakthrough Act (whatever that means). I didn’t think too much of it, but then I heard some great reviews of their album, so I decided to check it out… it is so much fun! Sarah and I have been enjoying it immensely since we got it. It’s easy to play “spot the influence” or “who does it sound like” and my first thought is that it sounds like early Supergrass. Perhaps not the most obvious sound-a-like (as clearly, there’s some Bowie, Beatles and Clash in there) but the attitude that Supergrass demonstrated on their first two records is here in spades. It’s brash, young, snotty and very very catchy. The sing-a-longs come fast and furious with swooping choruses. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Bruce Robinson–The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman (2000)

Posted in Bruce Robinson, Cancer as plot device, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Marriage Trouble, Soiled Underpants, Tori Amos, Withnail and I on August 27, 2007| Leave a Comment »

peculiar.jpgSOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS: The Original Bootlegs (2005).

tori.jpg

I have commented before about how much of a diehard Tori Amos fan I was. [See What I learned… (5)] I have seen her live many times, on a few different tours. One of the things that I never got to see was a live solo show. She has always had a few piano-only segments during her shows, but from the time I started seeing her, the shows were always full band. And the thing is that I really like her with the band. Her drummer, Matt Chamberlain, is first rate and her bass and guitar fellows make great noise together. But even though I enjoyed the band, I still wanted to hear the solo article. Then, for her Original Sinsuality tour, she did an all-solo tour. And here are some recordings from it. Six concerts selected from the tour. The Holy Grail of Tori live. Or so you would think. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Pagan Kennedy–Confessions of a Memory Eater (2006)

Posted in Boston, MA, Funny (strange), Guster, Marriage Trouble, Pagan Kennedy, Set at School, Short Books, Supernatural, Time Travel, Tori Amos, Universities, Unreliable narrator on July 17, 2007| Leave a Comment »

memory.jpgSOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Parachute (1995) & Goldfly (1997).

I have seen Guster twice live, and since then I have become a huge fan of the band. The first time, they opened for Tori Amos, and I didn’t pay them too much attention, but I liked what I heard (this would have been for their Goldfly album). The second time, they opened for Ben Folds, and I was really impressed. I rushed out and got a copy of their record and now I listen to them all the time. They have such a great pop sense, without being treacly; in fact, at times they can be quite dark–and yet so catchy!

parachute.jpgParachute: A really great debut, that, in retrospect, sounds almost nothing like the Guster we know and love. This sounds a bit more like the Indigo Boys. Solid harmonies over a very acoustic sounding record. Over the years, Guster have written fantastic melodies and lyrics. And this album is no exception. It’s really the production that sounds so unusual here. Very sparse and almost cool, as opposed to the warmth that they bring to their later albums. The songs are top notch, though.

goldfly.jpgGoldfly: “Airport Song” is such a fantastic single, and such a great precursor of what’s to come from Guster, that it tends to overshadow the rest of the album. Goldfly starts Guster down the road of what we’ve come to (more…)

Read Full Post »

What I learned… (5) [Screwned]

Posted in Digression, Tori Amos on June 11, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Screwned. That’s the word I’ve come up with for something that people growing up now will never experience. This thought came about while listening to the Higher Learning soundtrack. As I may have noted, I am in the process of listening to all of my CDs, at lunch time, and I have made it into the Soundtracks section. So, today I listened to Higher Learning, an album I bought pretty much exclusively for the Tori Amos tracks. [Back in the early 90s I was a HUGE Tori Amos fan. Somehow she filled a niche that desperately needed filling, and I was smitten with her music and lyrics. (Although I always knew she was looney tunes, I was willing to put up with it because her work was so solid). In fact, I still think that her first, I guess, five albums are, overall, great. However, she has really started producing diminishing returns, with her previous two records being surprisingly dull. This is a woman with a great gift for melody and yet those last two were meandering at best. Her most recent one American Girl Posse is easily the best thing she’s released in a decade, even if the concept behind it is pretty silly. However, I won’t hold that against her. So, where was I? Oh right, so I used to be this die hard fan, buying anything with her name on it. And then Higher Learning came out with not one but TWO new Tori tracks (and it must be said, a couple of other interesting cuts too) . But largely, this is an album that I hated. It is full of R&B and some rather uninspired rapping (I do like the rap music, especially Public Enemy and Ice-T, but really beyond that, rap is a little too samey for me). Anyhow, this is how I got screwned. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts